100-year-old piano teacher has no plans to retire

MOSCOW MILLS, MISSOURI — Music could be the secret to a long life.

A piano teacher from Moscow Mills, Missouri has taught generations of students over 80 years and says she has no plans to retire.

When it comes to music, Missouri is much more Chesney than Tchaikovsky, unless you happen to be in Olive Haffner's neighborhood.

Several days a week, inside her home is a concerto of piano lessons and life lessons.

"I said it's like reading the Bible," says Haffner, "Every time you read the Bible you find something new."

If experience really is the best teacher than Ms. Haffner may be the best piano teacher on earth.

She's been doing it for more than 80 years.  She started during the depression at 25 cents a lesson.

She's been doing it so long now that her first students sent their children to her... and they sent their children... and they sent their children.

Ms. Haffner says no two lessons are alike because no two students are alike, but they all have to have one thing in common:

"Go home and practice, it was thirty minutes everyday and I went home and practiced and went over and over and over it until i got it," says student Helen Wilmes.

There won't be as many solos at Ms. Haffner's this week because former students are stopping by to wish her a happy 100th birthday.

Stephanie Dwiggins drove all the way from the University of Kansas where she's now a music major.

"I think it's important that she gets all the recognition and celebration that she deserves," says Dwiggins.

Ms. Haffner says it's the teaching that keeps her breathing.  Striking a chord with students for more than eight decades, and learning that she has no plans to retire is music to their ears.

Cox Media Group